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Topic: Filled Keg storage (Read 7214 times)

Now that we have our fermenting room completed and operational, we are brewing like crazy in an attempt to age a beer a little before distribution. We can easily store them in the brewery at 65-75 degrees. As a home brewer, I always kept my kegs at serving temperature. But of course there just isn't room at this point.

Any problems with storing them at basically room temperature? probably 2-3 weeks at most.

First you're a pro and I'm a homebrewer so take this with a grain of salt but doesn't warmer storage temps accelerate any oxidation that is already occurring? Therefore to me if you haven't had any significant oxygen exposure you should be ok.

Temperature speeds up every chemical process (in this case, oxidation, hop aroma degradation, etc). I think Charlie Bamforth says to assume twice the speed for every 10C (~20F). So if you believe your beer's shelf life is 180 days, Charlie's theory would suggest its only 90 or so at room temp.

Logistically, I would think the distributor is much less likely to store beer cold (and recommend cold storage to the retailer) if the brewer doesn't bother with it. The brewer (especially the little guy) may not have too much say in the distributor/retailer's beer treatment methods, but you can set the standard and hope its followed.

Another thing to keep in mind is that a warm temperature also accelerates the development of any beer spoilers that may have survived your sanitation process. Are you testing your wort/beer for those things now, because a warm keg will sure expose it pretty quickly (things like lacto, wild yeast, etc.).

Why would kegged beer be any different than bottled beer? I store my bottles for up to a year in my basement, which stays a constant 66 to 68 degrees. Some of my beers actually improve over this period of time. I recently started kegging, my last two kegs I primed with half the sugar I would have for bottling, gave each a shot of C02 to protect them, and now they are sitting in my basement waiting for a slot to open up in my kegerator. Is this a bad practice? I figured they would carb then condition just like my bottled beer does. I was thinking this way I would have matured beer when my taps run dry of the beer that is in there now.

For whatever reason, consumers want consistency. Since you're still a newbie in the pro world, I suspect your sanitation isn't as good as Dogfish Head's.

Like Kyle and Anthony said, even if your kegs aren't turning sour, spoilage bugs, oxidation can change the taste of your beer. From a QC perspective, storing kegs warm sounds like a good way to shoot yourself in the foot before you get off the ground.

If you are naturally carbonating in the keg, then there isn't much of a difference. If you are force carbing, there is a difference.

I wish the AHA had the seminars from the 2010 NHC. Jennifer Helber, LHBS owner here in KC and former Boulevard Sensory Panel Lead gave (and still does around the KC area) an excellent presentation on why bottle conditioning is superior for long term flavor stabilization. I wish I had a copy of it. For the record, Boulevard still bottle conditions all of their bottled beers.